The Vendée Globe around the world sailing race without any stops or assistance takes place once every four years. The next race begins and ends at the Sables d’Olonnes, France on Sunday 8th November 2020. Ulysse Nardin is a proud sponsor and the official timekeeper of this unique sailing event. It is the race of a lifetime, called by those who have sailed it, the “Everest of the Seas”. It is a thermic, social and physical shock unlike any other. The Vendée Globe is a mythical race, a challenge to be taken only by lion-hearted, intrepid explorers of the world’s ocean. Of the 167 skippers who have attempted the Vendée Globe since the race began in 1968, only 89 have made it across the finish line.
Virtual Vendée Globe, a thrill-packed, online game has teamed up with Ulysse Nardin to mark this auspicious occasion. Developed by Virtual Regatta, Virtual Vendée Globe can be accessed in the form of an app or website and enables sailing and gaming enthusiasts to experience their own odyssey from the comfort of their homes or smartphones. Boats will digitally compete for first place, facing virtual dangers that mirror those faced by the skippers in the Vendée Globe Race. A vessel flying Ulysse Nardin’s colours can be found among them.
Those brave enough to take on the Virtual Vendée Globe challenge will compete to win the Ulysse Nardin DIVER X CAPE HORN & DIVER X NEMO POINT.
THE NEMO POINT CHALLENGE
The first gamer that arrives in Les Sables d’Olonne after passing through the legendary Nemo Point will be awarded with a DIVER X NEMO POINT.
THE ULYSSE NARDIN CHALLENGE
The Ulysse Nardin Challenge will reward the final overall winner of the virtual Vendée Globe with a DIVER X CAPE HORN.
Synonymous with bold exploration, ingenuity, patience and masterful strategy and similarly with most sports where strategy plays an important role, the excitement around virtual events is well established in sailing. In this race professional sailors and former skippers will compete alongside amateurs in a clever mix of conviviality and rivalry, which perfectly encapsulates the spirit of competitive sailing.
The Vendée Globe race is set to start on Sunday, 8th November 2020. This challenge is first and foremost a journey beyond the seas and into oneself, a harrowing, solo course of navigation that takes sailors around three major capes: the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin and Cape Horn. There are no stops, there is no external assistance and there are no time limits.
These modern Ulysses have to nap rather than sleep on their carbon-fiber boats where a simple turning maneuver burns over 300 calories. The food on board is freeze-dried, the washing facilities inexistent and the dangers too many to list. Using foils to lift their hulls out of the water, the drum-like cacophony created by the crashing waves forces some of the skippers to opt for noise-cancelling earphones, even alone in the middle of nowhere. Moreover, the participants sleep feet first, as deceleration from a falling wave could send them sliding forward and into an injury, such as a crippling broken neck. And then there are the dolphins, the sharks, and the whales.
The Vendée Globe is not as much a challenge as it is a calling. It is a test, a bet one makes against oneself and the elements, the weather, a deal made with Mother Nature herself. Destremau considers his last race a roaring success, even if he finished in last place. The simple fact of having accomplished the Vendée Globe made him stronger, more confident, hungrier. “It is madness, desperation, insanity” said Destremau. “It is also the most satisfying, tremendous feat a sailor can accomplish in his lifetime”. Among the other flags he flies, Destremau is a ‘test pilot’ for Ulysse Nardin; on his wrist, he will be alternating between wearing the UN Diver X Nemo Point, the Diver X Antarctica and the Diver X Cape Horn.
Patrick Pruniaux, CEO of Ulysse Nardin, concurs. “The Vendée Globe is a one-of-a-kind race. It is a challenge unlike no other on Earth. To conquer – and even simply finish – the ‘Everest of the Seas’ is an undertaking so vast and complicated that those who return safe and sound are all champions. The Vendée Globe encompasses many of the values we hold dear at Ulysse Nardin; respect for the seas, the willingness to navigate the Great Unknown and the desire to test oneself to the ultimate limit of human endurance. We are all Ulysses.”